This article describes Walker electrical panels, and the original inventor and business owner Ralph M. Walker.

We include patent research and other historical details giving information about the origin, products, and life of the Walker Electrical Company and add safety suggestions for Walker electrical panels.

Walker Electrical Panels 1939 - 1965

On 2022-08-11 by James

Hi can you tell me anything about my panel?

[See photo at page top] [Click to enlarge any image]

This Q&A were posted originally at ELECTRICAL PANEL AGE

On 2022-08-11 by InspectApedia-911 (mod) - replace obsolete, rusted, unreliable Electrical Panel

@James,

Looking at your photo alone we can not see 98% of what an onsite inspector would be expected to check, and don't have any of the useful surrounding contextual data: building location, age, history, etc., but we can see and warn you about the following:

1. Watch out: Rust and corrosion in the electrical panel, risking circuit breakers that jam, don't trip in response to over-current, so increase the risk of a building fire or someone gettnig shocked
2. Six double pole breakers, no single pole breakers, so one would expect to find another electrical panel powering other circuits in the building served
3. It looks as if the panel is outdoors but may not be weatherproof.
4. I think this is a split-bus panel; in addition to its age, rust, corrosion, inability to accept new types of circuit breakers (possibly including AFCI and GFCI), you should also
   
   see SPLIT BUS ELECTRICAL PANEL HAZARDS
5. I Can't see brand or connection bus details that might identify the panel brand and thus tell us if it's a known unsafe product but the corrosion alone is sufficient to call for replacement

On 2022-08-11 by James

@James, here is a pic of the tag inside.

History of the Walker Electrical Co., Atlanta Georgia

@James,

That Walker Electric Company, Atlanta Georgia sticker in your electrical panel tells us that the panel was a product of Walker Electric, a Georgia company founded in 1939 by Ralph Walker (Ralph M. Walker), later bought by I.T.E. (Inverse Time Element Co. a large electrical manufacturer ) before the end of the 1950s.

Your electrical panel will have been made before the end of the 1960s, possibly a bit earlier.

There is a current Walker Electric Co., in Atlanta whom we think have nothing to do with the original Walker Electrical Panel company. The Walker family name also appears in additional electrical patents we include below.

• Walker, Ralph M., Charles M. Jenkins, and Carll W. Strong. METER BOX [PDF] U.S. Patent 2,182,603, issued December 5, 1939.
  
  [Illustrated above]
  
  Excerpt:
  This invention relates to improvements in weather-proof boxes for electric meters.
  
  One of the important features of the invention resides in a weathar-proof box for outdoor use in which an electric meter may be locked to prevent unauthorized tampering, and which may be viewed for reading at will by the representative of an electric service company or by the subscriber of the electric service.
  
  This convenience is not broadly new, for in Walker Patent No. 2,007,065, there is shown a lockable weather proof meter box having a window opening in alinement with the dials of the meter, but to properly house the entire meter in the box it was necessary to provide a forwardly projecting extension on the front cover, and accurately mount the meter in the box so that the face of the meter alined with a window opening in the extension.
  
  However, this invention differs from the Walker patent in that it enables the face of the meter to protrude through the front of the box, which eliminates the labor and material costs necessary to form a front extension.
• Walker, Ralph M. DESIGN FOR A WEATHERPROOF BOX FOR [PDF] US Patent No. 117,420 filed Sept. 1, 1939

• Walker, Ralph M. WEATHERPROOF BOX FOR ELECTRIC CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND OTHER ELECTRICAL DEVICES [PDF] U.S. Patent 2,250,977, issued July 29, 1941.
• Strong, Carll W., and Mabel B. Walker. WEATHERPROOF CABINET [PDF] U.S. Patent 2,274,106, issued February 24, 1942. Application filed by Walker Electrical Co.,
  
  [Illustrated just above]
• Walker, Mabel B., and George P. Alexander. AUTOMATIC OUTLET BOX MAKING MACHINE [PDF] U.S. Patent 2,331,525, issued October 12, 1943. Assigned to Walker Electrical Co.,
• Walker, Ralph E. FUSE PULLER [PDF] U.S. Patent 2,430,544, issued November 11, 1947. (Ralph E. was from Silverdale WA, perhaps not related to the Walkers above?)
  

More History of Walker Electric Co.

• Donald Hester, a home inspector in Washington State has written a nice little history of Walker Electric that you can see at
  
  http://www.ncwhomeinspections.com/Walker+Electric+and+Bulldog+Pushmatic -
  
  contact Mr. Hester at http://www.ncwhomeinspections.com/ or at 509-670-9572.
  

...

Continue reading at ELECTRIC PANEL INSPECTION SAFETY, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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• TEST MAIN BREAKERS & FUSES


• ELECTRIC PANEL INSPECTION SAFETY

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